The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, the approaches described in this section may not be prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Printing devices are a common fixture in many office environments. Current printing devices typically provide some combination of print, fax, copy, and other functionality that can be accessed via an operation panel on the printing device. One type of operation panel includes a digital display screen that is capable of generating graphical user interfaces and other visual displays related to the operation of the printing device. For example, a typical operation panel display screen may be configured to display a graphical user interface that includes buttons and other interface elements that enable users to operate the printing device.
While operation panels including digital display screens are useful for facilitating user operation of a printing device, there are instances where a printing device display screen may be underutilized. As one example, a printing device having a digital display screen commonly may be configured to turn off the display screen in response to detecting that the printing device has not been in use for an extended period of time. In some environments, turning off a display screen when a printing device is idle may be useful for energy saving purposes. However, in other environments this screen time may represent a valuable opportunity for an owner or operator of a printing device to display additional information, particularly in environments where an owner or operator of the printing device allows use of the printing device by others on a rental basis.